GOD THE BEAUTIFUL LOVER

self by Himself as an experiencer.' But the bliss potency
of God could not have a full play in creation ; for the
intrinsic self-hood of God is hidden by the play of Maya-
sakti. Nevertheless, it is all play, all fun, creation is.
Swami Vivekananda said to Sister Nivedita:—"You know
we have a theory that the universe is God's manifestation
of Himself just for fun . . . ! Play—it was all play
. . . just play with the Lord. Say: it (life) is all play,
it is all play." But though an out-pouring of a particle of
joy whose endless container He Himself is, the universe
is not the proper theatre for God's 'beatific' sports, and
however much it might be appreciated by us as the divine
musical love-drama, an exquisite cinema-picture with its
endless panorama of colours and forms, yet the Master-
hand of the Artist, the Baton of the Conductor, and the
play with the technique of Instrument, expanding or
contracting our vision, remain dark to us owing to May a.

There is a meaning of delight in the gramophone disc,
but unless we hear the music speaking feelingly to the
heart, the revolving disc is nothing to us. Similarly, if
the universe is a feast of love and sacrifice, we must first
receive the message of joy through the magic of personality,
before we can hope to realize and appreciate it in its
proper perspective. But owing to the working of May a
in her dual aspects, analogous to the Efficient Cause and
the Material Cause in the Aristotelian system, we cannot
see the eternal play of the bliss potency of God in this
'existential' universe, and thus the intrinsic self-hood of
God, the essential Krishnaism, is not revealed to us. We
all love to look at the sun, drinking, in a rich draught, the
overflowing health and beauty, when the eastern horizon
is flushed with the first pink of the morn. But at the
blazing summer noon, the bright halo of the sun simply

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